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THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 



BY THE AUTHOR OF "A LIVING 
CHRIST." 




WILLARD TRACT REPOSITORY, ^ 
12 West Street, Boston. 



■37/^0 

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by 

Charles Cullis, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Tre Library 

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WASHING 



T. R. MARVIN AND SON, 
PRINTERS, BOSTON. 



THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 



DY THE AUTHOR OF "THE LIVING CHRIST." 



)E sing our little songs of life, each 
in a separate key, with our own 
chords and discords which only- 
God can bring into harmony ; but there is 
one chorus that comes straight from every 
soul, and tells of God's love and help and 
tender care, to the least and the greatest, 
to the weak and to the strong. For what 
we know in our own consciousness about 
the love of God generally measures the 
depth of our religion. We may differ in 
many things, but here heart answers to 
heart. Indeed, religious experience is just 
finding out God's love : and those who do 
not find it, miss all life's sunshine and 



4 THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 

color and warmth. Such people always 
talk about what they must give up in order 
to become Christians ; they never realize 
what they will get. Perhaps it is not 
meant that they should, at first ; for God 
makes promises and not bargains ; and 
the heart that has never tried Him does 
not know how much His promises mean. 
But this is the beautifial problem of life, to 
find out the love of God by looking at it 
when it can be seen, by believing in it 
when it is hidden, and by trusting in it and 
following it always. 

In speaking of this Divine Love, it might 
seem to some more natural to say the love 
of Christ than the love of God, because to 
the first phrase they would attach a more 
definite meaning. But there is a funda- 
mental truth which we sometimes forget ; 
that Christ came into the world because God 
loved us. The love goes back of every- 
thing. Christ came as God Incarnate, to 
show us what God was, how He felt toward 



THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 5 

US ; to reveal the love which already existed, 
and give it its utmost expression in suffer- 
ing and dying for our sakes. He came, not 
in order that the Father might love us, but 
because He did love us ; that He might 
prove it to us, and we might believe Him. 
Here is the key-note for our song of life, 
and here is our inspiration for an answering 
love. For, strange as it may seem, it is 
almost the hardest thing in the world to 
love God ; the one thing harder is to be- 
lieve in His love to us. If every soul in 
Christendom were to cry out its heart-felt 
want, it would be the refrain of the hymn, 
" More love to Thee ! More love to Thee ! '* 
And yet there is one want that is deeper 
still, — the want of faith : because if we act- 
ually realized what God has done for us and 
how much He loves us, we could not possibly 
help loving Him, any more than a blind man 
could help seeing when his eyes were opened. 
And so we can understand how it is that 
when we look at a Concordance to our Bible 



6 THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 

we find so many columns devoted to the 
words " faith " and " believe." 

Let us stop a moment, and think about 
this great fact of God's love ; for so many 
of us Christians shiver out our years in a sort 
of spiritual Siberia, and " spend our life in 
keeping up our life." We are so very con- 
scious that we are not lovable that we cannot 
comprehend how we can be loved. And yet 
the chief reason why the favorite hymn, — 

" Just as I am, without one plea," 

has found so deep a lodgment everywhere in 
the Church is, because it brings home to us 
the wonderful truth that God is always ready 
to welcome us, just as we are, if we will only 
come to Him. Not that He means us to 
stay just as we are ; but because the coming 
to Him is the first step toward making us 
what we want to be and what He would have 
us. And His reception of us is so much 
kinder than we expected ! God's condescen- 
sion is so different from man's condescension. 



THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 7 

Why do we weary ourselves to learn faith's 
lessons before we come to Him ; instead of 
coming first, and learning afterward ? For 
coming to Him is the first duty as well as the 
first privilege ; and, if we can say nothing 
else, we can surely repeat with Pension, " O 
Lord, take my heart, for I cannot give it ; 
and when Thou hast it, oh keep it ! for I can- 
not keep it for Thee ; and save me in spite 
of myself, for Jesus Christ's sake ! " There 
is a sermon upon the "Hidden Power of 
Christ's Passion," — " I, if I be Hfted up, will 
draw all men unto me," — which tells us how, 
by the attraction of the Cross, the soul that 
is far off in the tumult of the world finds some 
strange, secret power calling it away ; some 
longing for a better heart ; some yearning 
for a nobler life, that lures on the reluctant 
feet, more than half afraid of the path before 
them. And then, as it comes a little nearer, 
the earthly things which it had clasped so 
closely, begin to lose their hold ; they fail to 
satisfy ; they drop from the hands : and the 



8 THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 

soul does not know what has been done to it, 
but feels that it must follow on. And by and 
by the hands outstretch themselves to that 
uplifted Cross, and the heart is conscious that 
it can be filled with no lower love ; and all 
that stood between fades away like shadows ; 
and sorrow comes, but does not daunt ; and 
pain may terrify, but cannot turn aside : and 
the soul goes on, up heights it could not 
measure, down depths it could not fathom ; 
knowing only that Christ is leading, and the 
Cross is still before. 

Thus it is that the love of God bestows on 
us the power to follow Him. The thing we 
dread at the outset is self-denial — the giv- 
ing up of our own sins and wishes and wills. 
But if we believe that God is ready to help 
us, and looks with love upon the faintest 
desire after Him, we will ask for that help, 
and use it when it is given. He can make it 
easy for us to consecrate ourselves to Him, 
or He can enable us to do it even when it is 
hard — and nobody else can. So the only 



THE LOVE WE LIVE BY, 9 

thing to be done is to pray to Him, to believe 
in Him, and to keep on praying and doing 
everything He bids us do. When God 
teaches us the gospel. His lessons mean 
something, and bear fruit Besides, while 
we let go earth with one hand we must grasp 
heaven with the other. The promises of 
God are, even in their lowest aspect, far 
more beautiful than the promises of the 
world ; 2MA God keeps His promises, while 
the world cheats. It is a happy thing to live 
by the love of God, and it is the normal law 
of life which He intends for everybody, and 
offers to all who will accept. If He could 
speak but twice to the soul, I think the words 
would be, " Come unto me," and " Only 
believe ! " 

There is, on the plains of Texas, a little 
flower called the compass flower, which, in 
all changes of wind or weather, points its 
leaves invariably to the north. We should 
be like that compass flower, and Christ the 
magnet. As it is the nature of a magnet to 



lO THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 

draw, so the love of God will draw our hearts 
to Himself, if we will only let it. No one 
ever learned to love God by merely trying to 
excite the feeling. We do not learn to love 
our human friends in that fashion. If we 
wish to increase our affection to any one in 
this world we dwell often and often upon 
the thought of how lovely they are, what 
beautiful traits of character they display, how 
kind and good and noble they always seem. 
Then we think of what they have done for us, 
and watch the way in which they seek to 
make us happy, till our love comes out spon- 
taneously to meet what is already in them. 
And thus it is in regard to God. We are to 
accustom ourselves to consider, not only the 
doctrines of the gospel, but God Himself, as 
shown to us in our Saviour, and as we find 
Him in our lives. If earthly friends are noble 
and good and kind. He is better than all, and 
He loves us ! He has lived and died for us ; 
and all our daily helps and blessings and joys 
xome direct from Him. We pray to Him 



THE LOVE WE LIVE BY, 1 1 

for these little things (which are no trifles to 
us), but do we thank Him when He gives 
them to us ? Is it not as pleasant to Him to 
be thanked as it would be to us, if we had 
done any one a favor ? These are some of 
the steps of the ladder by which we climb to 
the love of God. 

Another way is in keeping His command- 
ments. Right feeling is to be the inspira- 
tion of right living, not the substitute for it. 
Feeling is to crystallize into principle. The 
new creation is a creation of character ; and 
principle is not legality. A man must be 
honest and truthful and benevolent from prin- 
ciple. So too he must use the means of 
grace from principle. Daily prayer and read- 
ing of the Bible must be done whether we 
feel like it or not. Happy he to whom the 
means of grace are means of delight ; but 
they are always means of God's leading. 
Anybody who tries as hard as he can to 
please God, because he really wants to be 
good, is sure of divine guidance. He will 



12 THE LOVE WE LIVE BY, 

get many deep experiences of human help- 
lessness and a Redeemer's strength ; but 
when God teaches we need not dread the 
lesson. He may make mistakes ; but God's 
love holds on to him, and is ready to help 
him just as far as he is willing to be helped. 
It may turn him off from the particular track 
. on which he is going ; but it will only be to 
put him on a higher and straighter one ; 
for the life of duty is always included in, 
though uplifted by, the Ufe of love. 

God's commandments, says the Apostle, 
are not grievous. We think they are griev- 
ous ; but in reality they are the beautiful 
standard of ideal perfection, holding in them- 
selves all we long for, and all that satisfies 
the soul. For the sum of the law is to love 
God with all our heart and soul and mind 
and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. 
Just see what it is ! To make our life a bless- 
ing to the race ; to give shape and form to 
the dreams of brotherhood and philanthropy 
which have floated before men's eyes like fair 



THE LOVE WE LIVE BY, 13 

but unsubstantial clouds ; to rise yet higher 
than this, to love God Himself with all the 
heart, — to satisfy every yearning of hurhan 
affection with an object that can never dis- 
appoint nor satiate, with a sympathy whose 
readiness and delicacy is the very thing for 
which we search the world in vain, with a 
depth and tenderness of which all earthly 
friendship or desire is but the faint and weak 
reflection ; to love Him with all the soul, 
so that no breath of aspiration is unsatisfied, 
no divine craving unfilled, no infinite need 
unsuppHed by an infinite Saviour ; to love 
Him with all the mind, realizing that every- 
thing that is noble and lofty and grand is but 
a little ray from the Most High and Great 
and Majestic God, whose outermost splen- 
dors we might be proud to worship, yet who 
in the innermost glory of His goodness is 
our Father. This is God's law, of which 
we are so accustomed to think as restraint, 
and irksomeness, and oppression : and be- 
cause it is His law it is the hio:hest satisfac- 



14 THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 

tion and flowering out of our nature. It is 
one of the greatest of blessings to catch a 
glimpse of this truth, because it helps us to 
see that the efforts we make to keep even 
the least of the commandments run in the 
same line with our noblest aspirations ; so 
that we may get rid of much of the feeling 
of drudgery that haunts an ordinary life. 
It is so good to know that God wants us to 
be happy, and so good to know that the 
things He tells us to do are not arbitrary 
requirements, but ways to lead us into hap- 
piness ! 

But, best of all, we learn to love God by 
daily living with Him. '' The secret of the 
Lord is with them that fear Him." Put 
in contrast His forbearance and gentle- 
ness and ceaseless patience, with our way- 
wardness and meanness and want of faith. 
What human friendship would we not 
weary if it only knew everything ! But 
God sees straight through us, and loves us 
still. 



THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 1 5 

" Kind hearts are here ; but yet the tenderest one 
Has limits to its mercy — God has none." 

Oh there is a rest in this love of God 
which falls upon the soul like the sunshine 
on the quiet hills ! To feel that we are 
His ; that He takes care of us ; that He 
knows all we need ; that He gives us His 
Spirit day by day to lead and bless us ; that 
when we sin He pardons ; that when we 
are in perplexity He points the way ; that 
His light shines through our darkness, and 
His tenderness pities all our pain ! This is 
the sympathy of Jesus, and the help of 
Almighty God ! This is the rest of faith ; 
because we depend on something outside 
ourselves, a foundation which can never 
fail. It was a custom in the early Church 
to sing at the time of the celebration of the 
Holy Communion the 34th Psalm : — 

" O taste and see how gracious the Lord 
is ; blessed is the man that trusteth in 
Him. 

" O fear the Lord, ye that are His 



l6 THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 

Saints ; for they that fear Him lack noth- 
ing. 

" The lions do lack and suffer hunger ; 
but they that seek the Lord shall want no 
manner of thing that is good." 

Our part is simply to follow Him every 
moment ; submitting to His will, eager to 
do His pleasure, taking all He gives us, 
and believing that His wisdom gives the 
best* He knows what blessings we require, 
and when to send them. " For what we 
need for our Sanctification is not only 
grace, but the right grace ; the right grace 
at the right time, and in the right place." 

So the love of God will shine, if we will 
let it, over every hour of our lives. It 
adapts itself to all our necessities. When 
we are grieved with the burden of our sins, 
it is forgiving love : " If any man sin, we 
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus 
Christ the righteous, and He is the propi- 
tiation for our sins." When we are wearied 
and worn out, it is refreshing love : " Come 



THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 17 

unto me all ye that labor and are heavy- 
laden, and I will give you rest." In temp- 
tation, it is delivering love : " God is faith- 
ful, who will not suffer you to be tempted 
above that ye are able." In sorrow, it is 
consoling love : " As one whom his mother 
comforteth, so will I comfort you." In 
death, it is triumphant love : for " Death is 
swallowed up in victory." And what we 
need is just faith to take it all in. Then 
peace and joy will spring up of themselves, 
and self-devotion will be easy. One reason 
why it is so hard to submit our wills is that 
we cannot understand that God's way is the 
best. We think we are wiser than Omnis- 
cience. We need the perfect trust which 
not only says, " Thy will be done," but is 
satisfied with it when it is done. We ask 
the Lord to accept all we have and are ; to 
use us as He chooses, and to put us where 
He pleases ; yet when He takes us at our 
word we are astonished and distressed. We 
supposed He would guide us east, but lo ! 



1 8 THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 

He sends us west. And we fail to compre- 
hend that His love knows no west nor east, 
but extends so far on every side that we 
can never get beyond its protecting wisdom 
and power. 

Nothing but this love can lighten the 
darkness of life. All other torches go out 
in the night and storm. Faith has one 
grand axiom which it applies to all doubt 
and sadness — the truth that " All things 
work together for good to them that love 
God." " Let not your heart be troubled, 
neither let it be afraid." How often it is 
afraid — tormented with anxieties which He 
never intended us to feel ; oppressed by 
care which He bids us cast on Him ; fretted 
by mysteries which He never meant us to 
solve. He is the governor of the earth ; 
not we. Is His goodness less than ours, or 
His justice less than ours, or His pity less 
than ours, that we cannot leave His own 
world in His own hands } And for ourselves, 
have we not sight, as well as faith, to assure 



THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 19 

US of His love ? Who can look back upon 
the past without seeing the golden thread 
of His mercy running through the years ? 
All our experience resolves itself into the 
confession, " Hitherto hath the Lord helped 
us ! '' We did not always see the help at 
the time, but we can see a great deal of it 
now ; and we can see, too, how very unfor- 
tunate it would have been if we had per- 
petually had our own way. We are not half 
thankful enough for unanswered prayers. 
God knew better than to give us everything 
we wanted. Somebody remarks, "More 
tears are shed over fulfilled than over disap- 
pointed hopes ; " and if we do not see the 
force of the sentence, we have been spared 
a sorrowful lesson. As to reckoning up 
the positive blessings which God has lav- 
ished on us, we might as well attempt to 
count the sunbeams. Then let faith do its 
work for the future. Trust and rest. Da- 
vid has said it all in four little words : " The 
Lord is my Shepherd ; / shall not want'' 



20 THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 

There is a wonderful passage in the Epistle 
to the Romans which tells us that *' Pa- 
tience worketh experience, and experience 
hope." In the world's logic this would be 
entirely reversed. Experience would work 
disenchantment, bitterness, and distrust. 
But how beautiful to live a life in which ex- 
perience worketh hope ! " Whoso is wise, 
will ponder these things ; and they shall 
understand the loving kindness of the 
Lord." 

And as we do begin, so dimly and slowly, 
to understand it, shall not our cold hearts 
warm into a gratitude not only of the lips 
but of the life } Shall we be so loved, and 
yet so loveless } Shall we see so much in 
the earthly loves, which are but shadows of 
heaven's great reality, and so little in the 
divine Saviour who loved us and gave Him- 
self for us } Would we be mean enough to 
take everything, and yield nothing in re- 
turn } For what Christ asks is first the 
affection of the heart, and then the thank- 



THE LOVE WE LIVE BY. 21 

offering of the life ; the loyalty to obey, and 
the earnestness to work for Him. How- 
many on every side are questioning the 
meaning of life ; looking for some purpose 
to inspire them ; some aim to satisfy : and 
all the while the Lord offers us His own 
work to do, and His own Spirit by which 
to do it. We are * to bless even as He 
blesses. If He is kind to the unthankful 
and the evil, shall we be hard and selfish } 
When we hear the hungry cry, and see the 
naked shiver, and the sick are dying around 
us, and the stranger and the poor are in 
our streets, shall we hear no still, small 
voice which whispers, " Inasmuch as ye did 
it to one of the least of these, ye have done 
it unto me " .^ While angels wait rejoicing 
for the repentant sinner, shall we not be 
eager to point him to the Cross 1 While 
the world's great sorrows crush down those 
who mourn, and the world's great darkness 
shuts out the rays of hope, shall not our 
willing hands help to lift the veil that hides 



22 THE LOVE WE LIVE BY, 

the gracious Lord from His children, and 
let in on them the sunshine of His love ? 
Oh ! the life of an Archangel is only a life 
of loving service ; and our little bit of mor- 
tality has it for its privilege to copy it here 
in miniature, till we come to the freer, 
grander sphere above. To do God's will 
from morning till night ; to bring our hearts 
into unison with His own ; to grasp the op- 
portunities as they fly ; to plant our earthly 
seeds for His heavenly harvest : this is the 
vocation to which we are called. May He 
who sees our deep un worthiness and frailty 
and sin, so fill us with Himself that our 
calling may be our joy ! 



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